Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Justice for Trayvon, Marissa and CeCe

Statement from the CAORANN Council:

17 July, 2013

We at CAORANN are outraged at the atrocity that is the Zimmerman
verdict. The system has once again failed People of Colour (POC) in
America. We stand with our loved ones for whom this sort of injustice is
nothing new, who have borne the brunt of this kind of deadly
discrimination their entire lives, who carry the burden of generational
trauma, and who have now been shown that they don't even have the right
to defend their lives. An unarmed child has been murdered, and we are
supposed to accept that a grown man with a gun, who stalked, chased and
then murdered him in cold blood was justified in doing so. We are asked
to "accept the verdict."

We do not accept the verdict.

We join in the call by the NAACP for the Department of Justice to
follow the clear precedents set by the Byrd and Shepard verdicts and
charge George Zimmerman with Hate Crime and Civil Rights Violations
resulting in the death of a human being, on the Federal level.

We also call for justice for Marissa Alexander, a mother with no
criminal record, a Master's degree, a weapons permit and a restraining
order against her abusive ex-husband. She has been sentenced to twenty
years in prison simply for firing a warning shot to scare off her
attacker. No one was even wounded. The case against her was presented by
the same Florida prosecutor who failed to convict George Zimmerman.

The mothers and aunties and grandmothers on the CAORANN council stand
with the mothers who have lost their children to racist violence, and
the mothers who have been jailed for defending themselves from abusers.
We mourn the loss of this young man, the jailing of an innocent woman,
and the ugly blood stain that once again spreads across the white hands
of America. As a predominantly white group, we know that the pain those
of us with white privilege feel, as gutted as we feel, is miniscule
compared to that of our friends who have kids who look like Trayvon
Martin, who could be shot down like Trayvon, who were already dealing
with culture-wide PTSD before this happened, and who have lived with
this fear for their entire lives. We fear for all the People of Colour
we know and love who could also be shot down, whose words and work are
dismissed or stolen every day, and who are dealing with racist trolling,
physical assaults, and even murder, just for standing up for themselves
and their communities.

We offer our prayers for justice and compassion.

But compassion is not enough. Feeling grief is not enough. From that
grief must come action. We affirm that we must continue to work in the
communities to which we have access to dismantle the deadly system of
white privilege and white supremacy in America, and in all the countries
where racism is taking the lives of our friends, relatives and beloved
allies.

In grief, solidarity and determination,

The CAORANN Council,
Celts Against Oppression, Racism and Neo-Nazism

ETA: After some initial technical difficulties, we've now posted the above text on the CAORANN website, as well. We apologize for our delay in getting this out. We have been working on these issues locally, processing with other activists, and having trouble speaking through our anger well enough to compose anything longer than a tweet.

Kathryn Price NicDhàna

Gaelic Polytheism, Cultural Preservation, Indigenous Solidarity

Occasional musings from one of the original troublemakers behind the contemporary Gaelic Polytheist (GP) (Gaelic: Ioma-Dhiadhachd Ghàidhealach; Irish: Ildiachas Gaelach) and Celtic Reconstructionist traditions. Allegedly the person to blame for that unwieldy, awkward, misinterpreted and misrepresented, umbrella tradition name (CR), and most definitely to blame for the Nigheanan nan Cailleach agus Ora nam Bandia branches of the community.

Clann Eóghain. Tha mi a fuireach ann Wabanahkik. C0-còrdadh: Kaswhenta. While my family culture growing up was diasporan Gael (Irish/Scottish-American), and my low BQ gives me white privilege / passing privilege, I also have distant indigenous heritage from both Turtle Island (Catawba/Yęh Iswä H'Reh) and Sápmi. I am an unenrolled descendant with Native family and relatives, from both ancestry and adoption. I'm a long-term member of several Indigenous-led collectives, active in Indian Country in largely a backup/support role since the 1980s, and in more recent years in interfaith and political work as both a collective member and as a representative of our GP groups. I don't presume to steer the canoe, even when it's one that my cousins have built and are helming, but except for my fellow Gaels and other diverse relatives, I jumped out of the ship almost a decade ago. I'd much rather swim with the otters, and continue my work with the side of the family I live with now, than get back in, unless it's to sabotage and change the course. I do that sometimes.

I serve on the governing councils of CAORANN and Gaol Naofa; however, all opinions expressed on this blog, and posted elsewhere under my own name on social media, are my own.